Drink mixer support



June 19, 1951 F. v. FoRss DRINK MIXER SUPPORT Filed April 25, 1948 v 3h00/fw Patented June 19, 1.951l

DRINK MIXER SUPPORT Fritz Victor Forss, Racine, Wis., assignor to John Gister Manufacturing Company, Racine, Wis., a corporation of Wisconsin Application April 2.3, 1948, Serial No. 22,890

This invention relates to electric drink mixers and refers more particularly to mixers of the type wherein the agitator is rotatably journalled in the bottom wall of the mixer cup.

In mixers of this type the mixer cup has a side wall which tapers to a minimum diameter at its bottom, and the agitator carried by the cup is adapted to be automatically coupled with a driver on the motor shaft upon insertion of the bottom portion of the cup into a ring-like cup holder' mounted on the motor housing at its top and encircling the driver. rThis cup holder has a bore tapered to correspond to the taper on the side Wall of the cup so as to hold the cup upright and in axial alignment with the driver on the motor shaft.

In the past, drink mixers of the type herein concerned have been provided with a ring-like cup holder made of metal, and which consequently was influenced by the heat of the mixer motor as Well as by the temperature of the cup and its contents. Hence, the ring was caused to expand by the heat of the motor at times when the cup was removed. If the cold cup was then reinserted in its holder, it caused shrinking or contraction of the ring into tightly gripping engagement with the exterior of the cup. When such contraction of the holder occurred, removal of the mixer cup was extremely difficult.

In attempts to overcome this difficulty, holders made of rubber or an equivalent yieldable material have been substituted for the metal holders, but this expedient was also found undesirable because the yieldability of such holders permitted the mixer cup to drift out of alignment with the driver on the motor shaft.

With these objections in mind it is an object of the present invention to provide a drink mixer of the character described wherein the mixer cup is at all times easily removable from its holder and wherein the cup is held in true axial alignment during mixing.

More specifically it is an object of this invention to provide a drink mixer wherein the mixer cup has only limited engagement with its holder so as to assure easy removability of the cup under all conditions of mixing.

Still another object of this invention resides in the provision of an improved holder for drink mixers of the character described wherein intimate Contact between it and the Cup held thereby is limited to relatively small surface areas circumferentially spaced a substantial distance from one another.

With the above and other objects in view,

2 Claims. (Cl. 248--346) which will appear as the description proceeds, this invention resides in the novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts substantially as hereinafter described and more particularly dened by the appended claims, it being understood that such changes in the precise embodiment of the herein disclosed invention may be made as come within the scope of the claims.

The accompanying drawing illustrates one complete example of the physical embodiment of the invention constructed according to the best mode so far devised for the practical application of the principles thereof, and in which:

Figure l is a side elevational view of an electric drink mixer of the type to which this invention pertains;

Figure 2 is an enlarged view of part of the mixer shown in Figure l with portions of the mixer cup and its holder shown in cross section to illustrate the means for assuring ready removability of the mixer cup under all conditions of use; and

Figure 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken through Figure 2 along the plane of the line 3 3) Referring now more particularly to the accompanying drawing, the numeral 5 generally desighates a drink mixer of the type having a base 6 which serves to house an electric motor (not shown). A rigid metallic supporting ring or holder 1 is fixed to the base in spaced relationship to the top thereof, and is adapted to receive and support the mixing cup 8 in a predetermined upright position co-axially with the driver 9 on the motor shaft. The driver projects up through the top of the motor housing or base v6 into the central portion of the holder 1.

In the type of electric drink mixer described, the agitator l!) is freely rotatably journalled in the bottom wall ll of the mixer cup, and has a socket l2 by which it is drivingly coupled with the driver 9 upon insertion of the bottom portion of the cup into the holder 1.

As is customary, the side wall of the cup tapered to a minimum diameter at the bottom of the cup, and the holder 'l has a bore l 4 extending therethrough provided with a taper corresponding to that on the side wall of the cup and of a size to receive only the bottom portion of the cup. The matching tapers on the cup wall and the holder 'l desirably assure co-axiality between the driving socket in the cup and the driver 9.

As long as the ring or holder 'i is made or metal, it absorbs some of the heat of the motor during periods of non-use of the mixer. In mixers where the holder and cup have intimate contact throughout the entire circumference of the cup, the metal holder quickly became cooled during the mixing of cold drinks in the cup. Thin resulted in contraction of the holder a degree suiiicient to cause freezing of the cup in its holder by the shrinking of the holder onto the exterior of the cup. Obviously whenever such freezing occurred it was extremely difficult to remove the cup from its holder after proper mixing of a colddrink in the cup.

With the present invention, however, the cup is at all times freely removable from its holder i, and to assure this result, a non-yielding pro: tuberance or pin I6 is fixedly embedded in the. side Wall of the holder withY its inner endv prog. jecting into the bore of the holder for engager. ment with a limited area of the side wall of a cup seated in the holder, Althoughl greatly ex-M aggerated, it will be seen that any tendency of the holder to shrink or contract due to cooling thereof causes the inner end of the pin IS to fier: the side wall of the cup inwardly over a localized area as seen at I8 in Eigure 3, without appre cably interfering with removability ofthe cup from the holder.

ItNalso be appreciated that while the inner extremity of the pin I.6 engages the cup at a: extremely limitedarea of its side wall, directconn tagt between the cup and the holder is possible only at a limited area of the holder di ainetrically` opposite the pin I6. Hence, contraem tiQnof the holder '1 during mixing of a cold dri-nl in the cup cannot result in a condition where the entire peripheral portion of the cup surroundcf bythe holder is intimately contacted andgrippe. by the holder,

It will also be seen that the protuberance or pin le, cooperates with the wall portions of the D012@ Opposite thereto, to provide in elfect a botn tom for the holder upon whichy thecup rests b the fact that engagement of the taperedwalls oai the cup with said pin and said wall portions of the bore limits the extent to which the cup may be inserted.

From the foregoingY description taken. in connection with the accompanying drawing, it will be apparent to those. skilled in the artthatnns, invention provides a simple yet highly effective expedient for assuring ready removability of the mixer cup of ank electric drinkV mixerV ofthe wherein the cup is held in place during mixing by an annular metallic holder.

What I claim as my invention is:

l. Means for supporting a drink: mixer cup Whose side wall tapers slightly toward its small diameter bottom end, comprising: a rigid holder having a bore extending entirely therethrough and tapered to t the bottom portion of the cup; and a small non-yielding protuberance irnrnovn ably fixed on the wall dening said tapered bore and engageable with the side of a cup inserted into the holder for preventing the cup from being inserted into the holder to the depth at which its side wall ts the wall of the bore, said protuberance cooperating with wall portions of the bore opposite thereto to provide in effect a bot tom for the holder upon which the cup rests, and limiting surface to surface engagement between the holder and the cup to thus prevent thermal freezing of the cup in the holder.

2. A support for a drink mixer cup whose side wall tapers slightly toward its small diameter bottorn end, said support comprising: a rigidv metal ring having a bore extending axially therethrough and tapered to fit the bottom portion o1" the cup; and a pin immovably fixed in the. wall of the ringl with its inner end projecting substantially radially into said bore and engageabie with the tapered side wall of a cup inserted into the ring for preventing the cup from being insertedl in effect a bottom for theholder upon whichv the cup rests.

FRITZ VICTOR FORSS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 144,070 Dietz Oct, 285 1372 1,801,835 Andrews Apr. 2l, 193i 1,997,873 Poplawski Apr. 1G, 19353 2,282,866 Hagen May l2, 1942 

